Manchester United had about as eventful and exciting a summer transfer window as a club can have. That’s obviously debatable, but they certainly executed an extremely high profile offseason. What’s not debatable is how expensive it was. Old Trafford spent big money on a brand name manager in Jose Mourinho and they purchased the most expensive player contract in history with Paul Pogba (£89.3 million, $115 million).
Everybody spent big, but United topped the table in throwing the transfer cash around. They also brought in one of the world’s most colorful superstars in Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The Special One, Zlatan-mania, #Pogback etc all sent expectations sky high for this season.
Probably a little too high.
Then United won the Community Shield over defending Premier League Champion Leicester City as well as their first three league fixtures. All that preseason title talk then seemed justified; until the most hyped Manchester Derby in history when it all came crashing down.
That match was shown in 190 different countries and it amplified everything, good and bad, about United’s over-the-moon expectations and hype.
A mini-crisis followed the loss and now we find the Red Devils in sixth place in the Premier League table; they same spot they occupy in the FOX Soccer PL power rankings.
Many of us got way too excited about Manchester United’s fast start and we’re probably a little too down on them after their recent struggles. Balance it all out and they look like a fringe top four team, which isn’t too bad considering how much better the top of the Premier League looks than it did a year ago
To view the rest of the FOX Premier League power rankings go here.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.